GIMP

Well, here’s my next installment of “FREE Stuff!” and it is my latest CARtoons illustrations as desktop wallpapers. I only offer two sizes; the most common, and largest, in both 16:9 and 4:3 monitor aspect ratios.

That’s right boys and girls!! You can download a Krass & Bernie CARtoons Magazine cover image for your Facebook profile or fan page. It is possibly the most remembered title image of the Krass and Bernie comic with a few tweaks and modifications. I have colored it… the main difference… and expanded its dimensions to be that of a Facebook cover image. I removed the “Krass and Bernie” title text and put the CARtoons logo instead along with a Facebook logo in the corner. Just click on the thumbnail below to download the image.

Inspired by Disney’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Halloween special. When I was a kid I looked forward to watching that cartoon every year. It was one of my favorites!

Anyway, I wanted to record the painting process but I had some problems during the process and didn’t feel like starting over. I did manage to record the sketch. It is on YouTube. The sketch and painting were done in MyPaint using a Wacom Intuos 5.

The last couple of posts I made were of CARtooons ( ’79 Toyota & ’57 Chevy ) where I made reference to the CARtoons magazine and George Trosley. So, I started thinking maybe I should get into it and (in my best southern accent) “let them young’uns know whut’s whut“. I won’t go into the technical aspects of CARtoons magazine as you can find plenty of info in that regard from the external links I provided above. Instead I will tell you more about what it was for me. So this is more a rediscovery than a discovery.

For me, CARtoons magazine was the ultimate world of imagination. I got into the magazine, stories and artwork in the 80’s. Being that I just got a driver’s license and my own car (a 1975 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme… lovingly referred to as the Tank) and I loved to draw. It was magic. Seeing the things people, or Krass & Bernie, would do to cars, trucks, vans (or whatever they got their hands on) provoked me to get into the workings “under the hood“. It was a whole new world of creation and exploration. The amount of knowledge and understanding of mechanical devices I gained during that part of my life is / was priceless… in my opinion.

Anyway, since I recently got back into drawing my own CARtoons I became a bit nostalgic and collected some magazine covers to share with you all (plus this super cool FREE Facebook cover image!). As with most people that used to read CARtoons magazine… I wish I still had my old issues.

As I stated in my previous CARtoon of an 1979 Toyota HiLux pickup truck, I have rediscovered my fascination in drawing cartoons of cars, or CARtoons. I have always enjoyed George Trossley’s artworks in CARtoons magazine and I have come to the conclusion that I should do more of my own CARtoons. For now I am simply doing caricaturized portraits of cars and trucks, maybe some planes and helicopters and such later as well, but I intend to do some strips later. If the stories come to me!

Anyway, here is my latest, a 1957 Chevy Bel Air. Maybe THE classic American muscle car? It is not 100% accurate. It is missing the chrome tips on the fins and hood inlays, along with the chromed “Chevrolet” text above the “V” emblem on the hood, not to mention there isn’t a door handle or lock!

It was painted in MyPaint and Photoshop using a Wacom Intuos 5 graphic tablet… well, everything except the clouds… I got a bit lazy… forgive me…

When I was younger, 14 to 24, I used to work on cars quite a bit. A friend and I almost always had a project, rebuilding an engine or simply some modification that needed to be done. Therefore, cars were a large part of my life and I did a lot of drawing cars, trucks, etc. During that time I used to love looking through and reading George Trosley’s CARtoons magazine. So, naturally I was also drawing my own CARtoons.

However, there came a time when cars, didn’t play such a roll in my life and I, as a result, stopped drawing CARtoons. Well, I have recently rediscovered my love for illustrating these caricatured automobiles and pushed out this illustration of a 1979 Toyota HiLux 4X4 pickup truck. Or as I called it, “HighLux”.

I just started sketching it and couldn’t stop. It was very fun so I will probably do more CARtooning in the future! So, look forward to it!

Here’s my latest “Bad” illustration! This is “Bad to the Bone” another addition to my “Bad” series of children (so far just girls) in cooperation with a monster like being. My working title, all of about 1 hour, was “Just Bad”. Well, obviously that didn’t stick. It was only my working title until I figured out what monster would be behind the little girl. This was drawn and painted in MyPaint and Photoshop using a Wacom Intuos 5 graphic tablet.

This is my rendition of the LOST Supper. I had the idea to do such a painting after having finished watching the series again and during my researching and collecting references I discovered ABC Studios had photographed their version of the LOST Supper. So, I wasn’t sure about actually doing it since it had kind of already been done. However, a few friends helped convince me otherwise. I think the chosen characters and their placement makes sense and works well. I tried to keep a lot of the poses the same, or near the same, as in da Vinci’s Last Supper. Since da Vinci’s is in rather bad shape I also referred to Giovanni Rizzoli’s copy of Leonardo’s painting.

They contacted me on August 13th and asked if I would mind them publishing the “Bad Monster” painting. And of course I was like, “How much is it worth to you?”… and they didn’t reply any more…

=0P (just kidding)

No, seriously, I was excited! I prepared all the files, sent the copy release, and asked when it would be published and where I could purchase additional copies… and nothing. No Joke. I checked issue 90, waited for issue 91, and then I wrote… they replied and said it would be in the next month’s issue… and there it was. It was difficult to not share the news when I heard and actually wait for the magazine to come out… but I did it! Anyway, it’s cool!

This piece, titled “Invasion” is a sort of study or practice piece. I realized I needed to work on my ambient lighting in paintings to help bring across an emotion that might not be obvious within the action or focus of the painting. Mainly for the painting I started planning a couple of weeks ago. I will possibly do a couple more studies of a different nature because somethings I will be attempting are not really me or part of my style at all.
“Invasion” was painted in MyPaint and Photoshop using a Wacom Intuos graphic tablet.